Pages

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Chaser

Sometimes I don't post all what I'm watching in the sidebar, especially when I'm doing 16 episodes in a weekend (jeez, that sounds slutty, even as for me, ekhem). And I usually don't write posts about non-subbed dramas. But I decided to make a fuss about the one that ended today, so maybe more and more people would demand the subs.

The Chaser, be warned, is not a pleasant drama.

According to asianwiki:

Detective Baek Hong-Suk (Son Hyeon-Ju)
lost his 15-year-old daughter in a car accident and his wife died from
shock shortly afterwards. Detective Baek Hong-Suk then searches for the
truth related to his daughter's death and learns that her death is tied
into a conspiracy.

Reporter Seo Ji-Won (Koh Joon-Hee)
is the owner's daughter of a large corporation. She helps Detective
Baek Hong-Suk to uncover the truth on his daughter's death. While
covering the story, she finds out that her brother-in-law (Kim Sang-Jung),
a top presidential candidate, is involved in corruption. Reporter Seo
Ji-So comes into conflict between her family and the truth.

First episode had scenes that could make even the rock cry, mainly death and incineration of Baek Hong-Suk's daughter. If you don't cry while watching it, you're simply not human. There's no way anyone can stay unmoved. Oh yes, but it's also thanks to the actors.

The drama portrays a world where the best friend can kill when bribed with huge sum of money, human life means absolutely nothing, relationships don't exist, and the only force that powers up the world is greed.

It starts with a bang - literally - because desperate Detective Baek storms the building of Court to shot the one who killed his daughter. And it doesn't lose the pace until very last episode.

If anyone says that kdramas revolve around the same topics all over again, this drama proves that they are horribly wrong. Actually, there are kdramas that deal with heavy topics, but they go unnoticed due to to the plot, or lack of any butterflies and flowers. This is why I watched I Love Italy on Mondays and Tuesdays, right after The Chaser - to cure me from the world shown in the latter drama. The ugly, cold and merciless world where usual people are powerless and mean exactly the same as broken reed floating on the river. It's a dark tale about the politics, common people and meaningless lives we are living in the eyes of mighty people of this world.

It's been a while since any drama made me such sick and disturbed.

This drama has serious, fabulous actors, who prove what a true acting means. Kim Sangjeong can play a nice ajeosshi, but he can also play a coldblooded bastard that deserves to be torn apart by horses. And believe me, I wished something like that happened to him throughout the entire series. Son Hyeonju looks like your math teacher, but maybe this is why he's so powerful in portraying normal people struck with tragedy, he's painfully believable. Plus, there is Jun Nomin here in a smaller role, so...

SBS ever since Bad Guy was on my list of stations that can make a visually detailed and fresh drama (OK, Bad Guy was a mess towards the end, but still) despite being the broadcast that notoriously breaks the promises, schedules etc.